Archive March 2004

It’s nice to see them having so much fun. We’re such good liberators! *warm fuzzy* Democracy goooooooood. We simply must invade more countries more often!

Anyway, this post isn’t really about that. Air America launches today, the “so-called liberal” radio network. (Why does every news report use “so-called?” Are we doubting its liberalism? Odd.) Unfortunately, their website blows and you can’t tell which end is up, much less find your local station. For the moment, you can only find it in New York, LA, Chicago, and Portland. Regulars include Al Franken (“The O’Franken Factor”), Janeane Garofalo, and RFK Jr.

A San Francisco station is set to pick it up next week. Streaming was purportedly on tap, but their website is effectively dead this morning. Republican DDoS attack! *shrug*

UPDATE: Air America is now streaming o’er da net for your listening pleasure.

Got a bunch of stuff I should post, and will soon, but some recent Mac OS X finds which I’m fond of:

Path Finder: I used this back when it was called SNAX, and someone at work recommended it again. I’ve got a couple of peeves with it, and I think having an integrated text editor and terminal is kinda geekboy overkill (terminals as part of a window rather than being their own window strike me as stupid), but whatever. The smart sorting is nice, as are its column browsing and about a billion other features. (Uh, thanks Rob.)

OmniWeb 5: This is still in beta and it shows. But it shows real promise. The tabbed browsing, while different, is really turning me on. You get thumbnails of web pages in a sidebar rather than tabs — which is actually quite handy. Given a known website, you can look at the thumbnail and see “where it is.” Other niceties include location shortcuts (for example, type “google schmeeve”), per-site customization, Safari bookmarks (it’s live, not just imported), and other goodies. It’s got a way to go, and this version uses Apple’s WebKit, allowing the browser itself to focus on GUI gadgets and bells n’ whistles. Me like. However, the unchangeable icon set is butt-f’ing ugly. Side note: disable FruitMenu if it crashes on launch. Side note 2: It’s nice that there’s such a variety of good viable browsers for Mac OS X: Safari, Firefox, Mozilla, Camino, OmniWeb, even iCab. God bless Mozilla.org for producing 3 of those. I still think Gecko rules, and were Camino given more attention that’d still be my everyday browser.

NeoOffice/J: an implementation of OpenOffice tailored for Mac OS X. No X11 required. Again, beta, or really even alpha, but definitely much easier to install than OpenOffice.

Virgin Atlantic Airways on Friday scrapped plans to install bright-red urinals shaped like women’s open lips at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, saying it had received complaints they were offensive.

…

“I don’t know many men who think it’s cool to pee in a woman’s mouth, even a porcelain one,” said NOW President Kim Gandy on the group’s Web site.

So, I had to shell out an obscene $185 for an upgrade to my Acura’s navigation system, but sweet Jesus, it was so worth it! They changed the voice! That shrill, tinny, highly accented voice which seemed more suited for saying “$15 one way, $25 you go round-da-world” at a Bangkok brothel than “Stay on 280 South.”

Now she’s a mix of Anne Bancroft and Kathleen Turner. Smooth and soothing, yet sexy enough to make sure you take that next left. Ahhh… sweet.

Reporter: When President Bush signed the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement & Modernization Act into law last month, millions of people who are covered by Medicare began asking how it can help them. The new law, say officials, simply offers people with Medicare ways to make their healthcare more affordable. In Washington, I’m Karan Ryan reporting.

Jon Stewart, Daily Show: Wow, that news report really makes me feel like the Medicare bill is a positive thing. Here’s the problem — there’s no such person as Karen Ryan and that news report is completely fake. The White House produced so-called “news packages” on the Medicare bill and sent them to local TV news stations with actors playing the roles of reporters. 33 of those stations then aired them as if they were actual news reports. I mean, honestly people, fake news?

…

Anyway, the faux-journalism gained furthered legitimacy by featuring an interview with Secretary of Health & Human Services Tommy Thomson, “This is the same Medicare system only with additional benefits for those seniors, plus some additional choices that each senior will be able to have.”

Well, that was some really heart-felt reading. Basically, this new Medicare bill is so good, the guy in charge of it can’t say anything nice about it without a tele-prompter. Even the General Accounting Office, an independent agency responsible for monitoring White House Spending, has faulted the ads as containing “notable admissions and other weaknesses.” But a spokesman for Tommy Thompson defended the fake news spots, noting, “Anyone who has questions about this practice needs to do some research on modern public information tools.”

…

Stewart: C’mon, it’s all there in the handbook. [cut to shot of 1984 by George Orwell.]

The scary thing is, it’s all true except the very last bit — you know, the punchline. It is, afterall, The Daily Show.

I have a new job in Palo Alto. The people are fantastic, but I know my coworkers are reading this, so I had to say that.

In reference to the last item: But seriously, I’m quite pleased with the people and the environment so far at my new job. And I’m not one to keep my mouth shut.

I turned 31 today.

In reference to the last item, that sucks. Big time. What’s left? Death? Marriage, kids? (Oh Lord, where to even begin with why that won’t happen.)

AOL sent notice of the last chunk of money they owe me today. Not a small sum, and I’m off to Vegas tomorrow!

In reference to the last item, I had a good time at AOL and I really liked the time I spent with my team. The company? Not so hot, though. I’m glad it’s over, and although it was two years too late, God knows I wasn’t going to leave without a package. And I’ve been proved right: I had my out, I took it, and it paid off.

Carolyn and I have confirmed upgrades to First on our flights to Vegas tomorrow. I love United. I’ve never been denied an upgrade.

In reference to the last item, I lost my Premiere Executive status on United this year.

In reference to the last two items, this royally sucks. I’ve gone from 50k miles to less than 25k miles a year. On a bankrupt airline, but I still love them.

In reference to the last three items, my friend Chris no longer works for a corporate travel agency and can no longer score system-wide upgrades for me free of charge.

In reference to the last four items, why did a bankrupt airline go for a PR makeover that involved repainting all their planes? That’s not cheap.

In reference to the last five items, I noticed my neighbor has a massive 50″+ Plasma Sony sitting in his living room. He used to work for United, but is missing half of his right arm. In fact, his license plate reads: “LK MY 1[HAND SYMBOL]” Makes me wonder: is United footing his Plasma buy? I call him “Stumpy,” but never to his face. Is that wrong of me?

I’m going to buy a new Power Mac G5 as soon as a speed bump is announced. Rumors put it at March 23rd, but Apple is notoriously tight-lipped.

Camino came out on top. I’m not terribly surprised by this, as it’s Gecko wrapped in Cocoa for Mac OS X. Firefox was a bit behind, presumably XUL getting in the way, but more surprising was the performance of Safari: just plain dismal. (Safari is based on KHTML, not Gecko.)